In Houston, Jim McIngvale is known, very well known, as Mattress Mack.

He built Gallery Furniture’s sales to $148 million per year, largely on the strength of his plainspoken TV ads. In one, he dressed up like a mattress.

He opened up a showroom during Hurricane Harvey two years ago, so he could house and feed Houston’s victims.

He also owns thoroughbreds. He once had a relative who suffered congestive heart failure. One of the prescribed drugs was Lasix in order to reduce fluids. McIngvale found it odd that people would use Lasix on horses, too. So he didn’t.

“A lot of people laughed at me,” McIngvale said Friday, “until a horse came along named Runhappy.”

McIngvale bought Runhappy for $200,000. The horse won nearly $1.5 million, including a Breeders’ Cup Sprint and three other major stakes. McIngvale also got three wins with Dontchangetrainers, mischievously named because McIngvale changes trainers like NASCAR teams change tires.

“What we need is to be less opaque and more transparent,” McIngvale said. “What Santa Anita did yesterday was very gutsy.”

Santa Anita announced Thursday that it will no longer permit race-day medication and will also regulate the use of the whip, whenever racing resumes.

These are measures that seem desperate but grimly appropriate when you’ve already closed your track for nine days, after 21 equine deaths since Dec. 30, and then the 22nd one happens Wednesday.

This one was a training accident that took away a 3-year-old filly, Princess Lili B. She was named after Dave Bernstein’s granddaughter. Bernstein is the breeder, owner and trainer.

“She just took a bad step,” Bernstein said. “It’s hard. She was a sweet horse. We used to go see her at the farm. She was eager to please, really a nice one. I’ve been doing this for 45 years and probably haven’t lost a horse in 20 years.”

Bernstein, who stresses that he’s not a veterinarian, says he doesn’t think drugs are necessarily responsible for breakdowns. The training community is split on this.

Jerry Hollendorfer said he was blindsided by the announcement, and Peter Miller said he would take his horses elsewhere. John Sadler called it a “big mistake” and wondered how Santa Anita would fill out its racing fields.

“I’m one for going by the rules,” Bernstein said, “as long as they go across the board.”

Nick Zito, Graham Motion, Bruce Headley, Dan Blacker and Kenny McPeek are among the 80-plus trainers who have joined the Water Hay Oats Alliance (WHOA), an anti-drug movement. Race-day drugs are already prohibited in almost every other nation.

Other horsemen argue it isn’t healthy to let horses bleed unabated. Lasix limits that bleeding. Because a horse’s pulmonary blood pressure can increase fourfold in competition, bleeding is a constant.

“When a couple of horses die after internal bleeding, what will people say then?” asked John Veitch, who trained Alydar during Affirmed’s Triple Crown season of 1978. “If that was the problem at Santa Anita, it would be happening everywhere else in the country.”

Studies have shown that bleeding, or Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EPIH), is measured on four levels, and Lasix reduces it to levels 1 or 2, both of which are conducive to better performance.

Level 4 is known as epistaxis, when blood is visible in the nostrils, but only 0.1 to 0.2 percent of horses reach that condition.

Again, this is the most unnerving aspect of this hellish Santa Anita season. No one can isolate a reason.

“I still think it’s the track and the abnormal winter that they had,” said Veitch, who lives in Kentucky. “They’re going to have to go down to the foundation and tear down that whole track.”

Those closer to the scene aren’t so sure. Bernstein had his horses training two days after Princess Lili B died.

“Her rider said it was perfect,” Bernstein said.

The horses keep training, and everyone else walks on eggshells.

When Boeing’s 737 Max crashes, the mechanical problem is fairly evident. At Santa Anita, they deal with animals, speed, traffic, weather, drugs and dirt. Only the latter two are within anyone’s control.

Make no mistake. This is a metastasizing crisis that endangers every track where horses run. McIngvale points you toward track and field, a sport severely disabled by drugs.

Banning Lasix might be like throwing a water bucket at Mt. St. Helens. It also might be a start.

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